Despair on the Staircase
Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair,
An image of magnificent despair;
The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise
Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes.
In her beauty's dumb significant pose I find
The tragedy of her mysterious mind.
Yet is she stately, grandiose, full of grace.
A musing mask is her immobile face.
Her tail is up like an unconquered flag;
Its dignity knows not the right to wag.
An animal creature wonderfully human,
A charm and miracle of fur-footed Brahman,
Whether she is spirit, woman or a cat,
Is now the problem I am wondering at.
[from lyrical poems from manuscripts of Sri Aurobindo]
pen and ink sketch by Mira Alfassa [The Mother]
Notes:
Adwaita vedanta is the recognition of the Oneness of being in a rich diversity of becoming.
Sri Aurobindo's writings and his yogic experience, politics and philosophy are a testament to this multi-facted world-view, which includes both humanity and humour - exemplified in the poem above and the prison memoir below
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Cell in Alipor jail where Sri Aurobindo got fundamental realisation of Cosmic Consciousness and Godhead (Sri Krishna) as all beings in One Being.
An extract from freedom-fighter Sri Aurobindo's Tales of Prison Life - an account of the harsh, solitary confinement to which he was subjected by the British. Inspite of the inhumanity he was subjected to, Sri Aurobindo was able to see the Divine in all things - good and bad, and to depict experiences with humour, humanity and humility:
''...this constituted the prisoner's meagre breakfast. Lufsi was a trinity i.e. it
had three forms. On the first day, Lufsi was presented
in its Prajna aspect - unmixed original elements, pure,
holy, Shiva-like. On the second day it was presented in
its Hiranyagarbha aspect - boiled along with lentils,
named khichuri, a yellowish admixture. On the third
day, lufsi appeared in its Virat aspect - with a touch of
jaggery, greyish in form, closer to being fit for human
consumption. I shunned the Prajna and the
Hiranyagarbha aspects after concluding that their
consumption was beyond the capacity of mere mortals;
but once in a while, I swallowed miniscule portions of
the Virat aspect and then lost myself in wonderment
and joyful reflection of the many-splendoured virtues
of British rule and the high level of humanitarianism
manifest in Western culture. It is mention-worthy that
lufsi was the only nutritious food-item for the Bengali
prisoners as the rest had no food-value.''